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Protests Cancel Trump Rally in Chicago; South Korea Holds Joint Military Drills with U.S.; Big Gains Likely for Germany's Anti-Refugee Party; Major Flooding in Southeastern U.S. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired March 12, 2016 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over):

It's all ahead on CNN NEWSROOM. Hello, everyone. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: And we begin in Chicago; two police officers were hurt, at least five people were arrested after a number of scuffles inside and outside a rally for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

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ALLEN (voice-over): With this fight was inside the event in Chicago after everyone was told the event was canceled by the Trump campaign because of concern for possible trouble. There were hundreds of protesters at the rally, some of whom were forcefully carried out of the arena.

Outside, police formed a human barricade against scores of demonstrators near a parking garage next to the venue. CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, was outside with protesters. Here's more from him.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The streets of Chicago just west of downtown Chicago are empty and quiet now, but it was a different scene only hours ago.

So many protesters from around Chicago came out to stand up to Donald Trump. They said that they did not want him speaking here. He was supposed to be at a rally.

And this is what we found on the ground just a few minutes ago, a crumpled ticket for a rally that didn't happen.

One thing I was struck by at this rally tonight, walking among the protesters, was the diversity of protesters, really representing a tapestry of Chicago's diversity. We had blacks and whites, Mexican Americans, Asians, really something different than we've seen at a lot of Donald Trump protests.

Now, inside, it was a combative moment. Outside, it was largely orderly. But this is a sign of something that is going to be continuing as long as the Trump campaign continues. The protesters we talked to were so happy that they stopped him from speaking here in Chicago. So that certainly will embolden others across the country.

So this heated political campaign is certainly going to get a lot more heated. This race may be something that we have not seen in generations -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Chicago.

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ALLEN: Trump is pushing back against the notion that he bears any responsibility for violence at his events. But critics point out that only he's dealing with these sorts of problems, even in especially combative election cycle. Earlier Trump spoke with our Don Lemon about Friday night's events in Chicago.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I got to Chicago a couple of hours ago. And we had 25,000 people scheduled for tonight. We're going to have a lot outside and inside, a tremendous gathering and real supporters. And at the same time, we had some protesters outside which was probably 2,000 or 3,000.

And I met with law enforcement. I don't want to see anybody hurt, Don. So I met with law enforcement and I think we made the wise decision to cancel.

Now it's pretty well broken up and no major problems. And we made a decision, even though our freedom of speech is violated totally, we made a decision not to go forward.

I don't want to see anybody get hurt. And you would have had some people possibly getting hurt or beyond. And so I made the decision, in conjunction with law enforcement, not to do the rally; we postponed it.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that you were -- the protesters have been expected tonight at your rally.

Was your campaign prepared for this?

TRUMP: Oh, I think we were prepared. But, you know, you can be prepared as you want; when you have thousands of people, you don't want to see a clash --

LEMON: Yes.

TRUMP: -- and they were minor skirmishes but no major clash. So we -- (CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You've seen the pictures, I'm sure, of what happened inside of that really. I'm sure you've been watching and looking at these pictures.

What do you make of what you saw?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's a divided country. I think we have a very divided country, Don. And it's been that way for a long time and it's very sad to see. It is divided among many different groups. And, frankly, it's terrible.

You look at a lot of people who are upset because they haven't had a salary increase in 12 years. You know, if you look at the workers of the country, our jobs are being taken away. Our jobs are being sent to Mexico. And they are being to all sorts of other countries. And our factories are closing.

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TRUMP: We have a lot of problems. And we don't have a real unemployment rate of 5 percent. It's much probably closer to 25 percent because --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Do you think, Mr. Trump, with all due respect you think that --

TRUMP: -- as people give up looking for jobs, Don, all of a sudden, they're considered employed, statistically. And so, it's a lot of problems --

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LEMON: Do you think that's what caused that directly tonight, the scuffle?

TRUMP: Say it again?

LEMON: Do you think that caused the scuffle directly tonight because those people who were fighting tonight weren't fighting over jobs?

TRUMP: Yes. I think it's largely economic. I mean, if you look at African American youth, they have a 59 percent unemployment rate, 59 percent. And it's -- yes, I think it's a largely economic problem, absolutely.

LEMON: Do you think it has anything to do with the tone that some have said that you have set by telling people to get them out or punch them in the face or they should be taken out on a stretcher?

Do you think that you bear of any responsibility for what's happened at this tonight in the rallies? TRUMP: No, I don't -- I don't take responsibility. Nobody has been hurt at our rallies and we have -- I've had 25,000-35,000 people, more than that. We had one the other day, 25,000 in Florida and we've never had anybody hurt or certainly seriously hurt.

We have -- I don't even know if we've had anybody hurt.

So, you know, we've had a tremendous large number of rallies and massive numbers of people, nobody even close to us in terms of size -- and they're great people. But we will have protesters stand up and be very, very abusive, unbelievably abusive and, in some cases, swinging and, you know, punching and swinging and not a good situation.

And I think we've been -- overall, I think we've been very mild with protesters. And some will stand up and we'll just usher them out. And, you know, it is not me that ushers them out. It's the police force. And the police have done great jobs.

So, until today, we've really never had much of a problem. Now we were in St. Louis today, we had a packed house. We had thousands and thousands of people that, frankly, couldn't get in.

And we had a few protesters. It was not a big deal. It was individual protesters standing up. There were quite a few of them, seven or eight of them, I would say. You know, seven or eight incidents is -- which was fine. And we had all -- everybody had a good time. I hope the protesters had a good time, to be honest with you. Nobody hurt.

LEMON: So I want to ask you a question that my colleague, Jake Tapper, asked you last night at the debate.

Do you believe that you have done anything, Mr. Trump, to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged?

And I'm going to add to that by saying, if your words and your tone inspire people to vote for you, to come to the rallies, to go to the polls and vote, why wouldn't those same words inspire people to violence?

TRUMP: Well, I hope that my tone is not that of causing violence, because my basic tone is really that of securing our borders, of having a country and having a great country, of bringing our jobs back, of bringing our manufacturing back, Don, of getting people jobs. That includes African American youth, where you have a 59 percent unemployment rate.

So I would hope that that does not lead to -- you know, I hope -- I certainly don't do that. I will say we have had tremendous success with people. You see the kind of polls, you see the kind of, you know, popularity that we have in the rallies themselves as well. I mean, it's a love fest in the rallies themselves.

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ALLEN: Trump's critics say he isn't taking responsibility for what's going on at his events. His rivals for the Republican nomination are starting to weigh in about what happened in Chicago. And Marco Rubio, who's fighting to keep his campaign alive in his home state of Florida, says that Trump needs to own up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have clearly spoken out over the last couple of days of being disturbed about the images we saw yesterday of someone getting sucker punched as he was walking up the steps.

We now see reports that allegedly a reporter was assaulted by his campaign manager. I say allegedly. I don't know all the facts about that. But I said earlier today as well, you know, there isn't fights breaking out at my rallies or at Ted Cruz's rallies or at Kasich rallies or at Bernie Sanders rallies or Hillary Clinton rallies.

There's something different going on here and I think when you have a presidential candidate, according to the polls and the delegate counts, the front-runner of the Republican Party, going into rallies and basically telling his followers, in the good old days, people that do that leave on stretchers, I think there's consequences to that. And he should own up and take some responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Trump currently leads Rubio in Florida, according to recent opinion polls.

On the Democratic side, front-runner Hillary Clinton weighed in on Friday night's violence, saying, "The divisive rhetoric we are seeing should be of grave concern to us all. We all have our differences and we know many people across the country feel angry. We need to address that anger together."

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ALLEN: There's a major change coming to the U.S. presidential race next week. CNN's "POLITICAL MANN" is calling it Terminal Tuesday, with both Marco Rubio and John Kasich facing must-win contests in their home states. Join our host Jonathan Mann Saturday at 8:30 am in London as he explains why it could be the last day of the race for those two candidates.

Plus Donald Trump raises the stakes, Bernie Sanders dons a coat of many colors and Ted Cruz shows off his tattoos. It's all on "POLITICAL MANN" on CNN.

Ahead here, an election on Sunday could be telling for the German chancellor's future in a nation engulfed by the migrant crisis; voters in three states will head to the polls there.

Plus the U.S. military has been secretly watching North Korea's apparent search for a submarine like this. Up next, why the vessel may be lost at sea.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

The U.S. military has been secretly watching North Korea's apparent search for a submarine. The U.S. is unsure if the missing vessel sank or is adrift off North Korea's east coast. They believe it may have suffered some type of failure during a military exercise.

Meantime, thousands of U.S. military personnel and South Korean troops are taking part in joint military exercises on the Korean Peninsula. As CNN's Ivan Watson reports, the drills come at a time of increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a show of force. The U.S. and South Korean militaries carrying on drills here on a beach, performing an amphibious landing. You can see the assault vehicles coming in right into the beach right now after exploding smoke to screen their arrival.

There are more than 17,000 U.S. and South Korean Marines and sailors as well as small detachments from New Zealand and Australia, that are all participating in these annual exercises. Now the South Korean government has called these the largest joint exercises ever.

This is the U.S. military and the South Korean military's chance to show off their military preparedness. And it's coming at a time of increased tension on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea says that it interprets these exercises as a precursor to a possible invasion and they've warned about a preemptive nuclear strike in response to this.

The U.S. and South Korean governments say that they've sent messages to the North, warning that this is purely --

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WATSON: -- defensive in nature. And given the timeframe of the eight-week series of annual military drills, this is an opportunity for the U.S. to reassure its South Korean ally within months of North Korea testing what it claims was a hydrogen bomb and firing a satellite into space.

These joint military exercises lead to annual cycles of tension between North and South Korea. The danger here is that both sides are armed to the teeth and, in case of a misstep, the risk of escalation is very, very high -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Pohan, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: The U.S. is calling for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss Iran's recent missile launch. U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, calls the launch "provocative and destabilizing." Power adds that the launch is a violation of a Security Council resolution that bars Iran from launching ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

Earlier CNN senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth told us about the U.N.'s point of view.

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RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: The secretary general of the U.S., Ban Ki-moon, in his statement said there was the major resolution that honored the nuclear agreement and wiped away other resolutions filled with sanctions included a measure that still stands, that the council calls upon Iran, quote, "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons."

They'll see this as more offensive possibly in nature.

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ALLEN: We turn to Germany now. Elections on Sunday in three of Germany's 16 federal states are seen as a test of support for Angela Merkel. The German chancellor is expected to rally one final time before the voting.

The migrant crisis is expected to dominate voters' decisions and even members of Merkel's own party are at odds with her over her decision to admit more than 1 million migrants into the country.

Germany's anti-refugee AFD party is expected to do well in the elections. Senior international correspond Atika Shubert asked the party's leader what the right-wing group represents.

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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As campaign ads go, it's a soft sell. Hazy images of idyllic German life for our country, for our security. No mention of specific issues or policies. The AFD or Alternative for Germany is selling an idea, the only political party, it says, willing to stand up and defend German identities and values, especially on the refugee crisis.

FRAUKE PETRY (PH), AFD LEADER: We have the label of being Nazi, of being brown, which is something very, very bad in Germany, something which frightens most people in society, and we say, hey, whatever the label is, let's discuss content.

SHUBERT (voice-over): AFD leader Frauke Petry (ph) is a chemist turned politician. The new face of Germany's conservative movement, she talked to CNN on the campaign trail as extra security patrolled the grounds of the local sports center where she was speaking.

Petry (ph) has received threats and protests follow her campaign. But her party stands to make big gains on a policy that advocates stopping migration altogether -- at least nor now.

PETRY (PH): We need to define who is in our state, who's going to go back and then we need to talk after that about migration laws. At the moment, we have the problem that we don't take these two problems apart and that the Merkel government is really afraid of sending a clear signal.

SHUBERT (voice-over): Germany is under pressure. Last year German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to the country to take in more than 1 million asylum seekers, initially basking in Wilkommen Skulter (ph) or welcoming refugees.

But then came New Year's Eve in Cologne. Refugees and migrants were blamed for the mass sexual assaults on scores of women and then came the backlash. Arson attacks on refugee shelters; in one case, an angry mob blocked a bus full of refugees from moving into town.

Recent polls say that a whopping 80 percent of Germans no longer support Merkel's refugee policy but many do not want to be lumped in with Far Right anti-Islamic groups, either. As audience members made clear to Petry (ph) during the rally we attended.

The AFD fills that gap but Petry (ph) still struggles to define where the party stands. A local paper quote her as saying police should use firearms if necessary to stop people from crossing the border illegally.

That sparked magazine covers accusing her of inciting violence.

SHUBERT: The headline here, the hate preacher, what do you make of it?

PETRY (PH): Yes, it hurts, it hurts because what I really want to say doesn't get through anymore. We need to be very strong about that and punish everyone --

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PETRY (PH): -- who's sort of involved in violence.

SHUBERT (voice-over): But precisely by providing a conservative alternative to the powerful center bloc of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Frauke Petry (ph) believes the AFD is here to stay -- Atika Shubert, CNN, Berlin.

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ALLEN: In the Southeast United States, at least four people are dead from major flooding.

Ahead here, what's causing the historic rainfall?

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ALLEN: We have this from the Guinness World Records. It confirms this is the oldest man on the planet at 112 years old, Israel Crystal (ph) lived through both world wars and survived the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in 1943. He was born in Poland in 1903.

Crystal (ph) says he doesn't know the secret to a long life, just that we must work as hard as we can and rebuild what is lost.

How about him?

Well, in the southeastern U.S., at least four people have died in record-breaking rains. Hundreds of homes are flooded and two states have declared states of emergency. The risk of more flooding is expected to continue until Monday. Here's Nick Valencia.

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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Texas to Tennessee, thousands of residents across six states have been affected by historic rainfall.

This woman had to be carried out of the water after driving her car into a flooded-out road in Memphis.

In Louisiana, the state's governor called in the National Guard to help with water rescues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, this is a very serious weather event, serious enough that the entire state has been declared an emergency.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Tara Moore (ph) shot this video in West Monroe of a houseboat that broke loose and floated away. There was nearly two feet of rain in the worst parts of the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We weren't prepared for none of this.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Sheriffs in Hammond, Louisiana, went door-to- door by boat to rescue people who were stranded.

More than 100 people had to be evacuated in Bossier Parish due to the rising floodwaters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If y'all need anything, call 9-1-1 and let us know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate it.

VALENCIA (voice-over): With more severe weather in the Southeast on the way, the National Weather Service says flash flooding will remain throughout the weekend, especially for south and coastal Mississippi -- Nick Valencia, CNN, New Orleans. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Those pictures -- Derek Van Dam is with us no.

And you were saying that this remarkable rainfall is an incredibly rare occurrence in the South.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. This is a 1,000-year recurrence interval. Now it's important that we get the technology correct here. SO I'm going to read this from the National Weather Service.

This means that, according to historical data about rainfall in this area, we're talking about the Southern United States, the probability of receiving the 500 millimeters of rain they've gotten in a two-day period is once in 1,000 years.

So to put it bluntly, that's a big deal. It's remarkable. That's the best way to put it. In any given year for an occurrence like this to actually take place, it would be 0.1 percent likelihood, so extremely rare.

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VAN DAM: We'll leave with some of the footage coming out of this region and you can see people having to use whatever form of, well, let's say boats or -- just to get around. It's very difficult for them and severe flooding continues in the streets. People stuck in their vehicles and in their houses.

ALLEN: My goodness. Well, you have a lot to keep up with.

VAN DAM: We do. It's busy in the weather world at the moment.

ALLEN: All right. Well, I know that you've brought us a lot of pictures from Scott Kelly on the International Space Station

He made an announcement that he would spend the rest of his life on Planet Earth.

The astronaut just spent almost a year in space on the ISS. And he's now announced he will retire from NASA in April, originally a U.S. Navy flier, Kelly has gone to space four times and holds the American record for the most time in orbit. He'll continue to take part in follow-up research related to his year-long mission. He's been with NASA for two decades.

Job well done, sir.

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VAN DAM: He did. He actually grew 2 inches while he was in outer space as well. That was amazing.

ALLEN: Now he's back --

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VAN DAM: -- and retiring.

ALLEN: All right. Thanks for watching. "MAINSAIL's" coming up.